it's not just that hamas won an election. they also then many hundreds of people died in that civil war to enable hamas to establish control in gaza. while palestinians i have spoken to wish fervently for a reconciliation or unity, it hasn't yet. it's because there's so many internal divisions within the palestinian community that have made this kind of unity very difficult to achieve. >> mark, why then -- chris makes a good point that we tend to pay attention when the violence erupts. this becomes the moment that it takes over news shows that we start making the phone calls, all of this sort of thing. why is the u.s. necessarily such a player in this story? what is it about -- in that story that i told, i didn't tell much about our policy positions. yet, we are a critical player in all of this going on. >> that's absolutely right. the u.s. is probably the one country in the world that israel feels closest to that, to the extent that any country has influence over it, the u.s. has it. american presidents feel a need often in